The Disheartened
by fangjakeridelovesme
Summary: Set at the very end of Eclipse when Jacob goes running off. Ignores Jacob's involvement in Breaking Dawn completely.
1. Hollywood Died

_1. Hollywood Died_

_ "Come home when you can."_

Sam's last words echoed through my mind as I raced to get father away from the life I was hoping to leave behind—over the soft, damp leaves that covered the hard and cold, yet yielding ground. I half hoped that it would stop raining, but it didn't matter. The rain reminded me that I wasn't the only miserable one.

I was glad that it was Sam who led us. He was a good leader for everyone. He understood what each of us was going through; what it felt like to want to run from the one you loved the most and never look back. Never return. Never feel again.

I knew I was upset and depressed about the whole thing, but I also knew that I would be able to get passed that. I was gone. I didn't have to deal with it anymore. I could barely hold onto a thought. My mind felt like it was flying behind me, left behind in the forest, struggling to keep up and hold on. I wanted to reach back for it and leave it behind all in one moment. I wanted to curl up in an abandoned cave and forget all about Bella and the last couple of years so I wouldn't worry anymore or overthink. I needed to stop caring.

They had hurt me. Both of them. Bella and Edward. And the worst thing was they knew they had. Bella had even half-heartedly tried to make it right, but there wasn't anything she was willing to give that I was willing to accept. I was trying to leave them behind and move on with my life. There was no point keeping any feelings alive for her.

I knew I had to pull myself out of this black hole. I would never choose to give myself up to it. I couldn't fall down there. It would lead me down a road I couldn't afford to be down. I watched Sam fight his way out and I didn't want to hurt anyone with my actions. I had to stop this and I was alone. I had to do it myself. There was no other way. I had no 'Jacob' to do it for me like Bella had. No emotional support or protection. There was no medication for me.

I slowed my running to a gentle pace and tried to relax. My heart was racing and my paws were beginning to hurt. I wasn't used to all the exertion.

I could hear the sound of running water to my left, but it was a small, faint sound. It was probably only a small stream, but it would be enough to keep me hydrated. It had recently stopped raining and the smell still lingered in the air and in the leaves around me. I stood still for a moment, expanding my mind to the forest. I could hear every sound that echoed around me. The way the drops of water fell from the tips of the leaves and hit the soaked and swollen dirt below my feet.

After a few minutes of attempting and failing to calm down, I tried to remember Sam's advice. He and Emily had always told us that if we were ever upset, it was best to talk it out with a third party. Who was I kidding. Emily would know that I would be hiding in the trees somewhere. She was too insightful that way. She'd also said that if I was—

I froze instantly. I remembered her offer and immediately turned around and started heading back to the reservation. Maybe I wouldn't have to do this myself. She was giving me a lifeline.

I would find my own 'Jacob'.

I would find my medicine.

And I would do it on my own. One step at a time.


	2. I Get It

_2. I Get It_

When I got back, I made sure nobody was nearby the moment I came back into hearing range. I didn't want anyone else to see me. I didn't want the pity party. Sam had been the last to go and he'd been heading to the Clearwaters' where it sounded like the rest of the pack was hanging out. All of them. Except for Emily. It looked like she was still at home, baking. Perfect. Nobody else would know I'd been here for hours. And I'd be long gone by then.

Sam's cottage was nestled right up next to the forest like most of the houses on the reservation. It was very convenient for the pack. We didn't have to worry that someone would see us while we were phased or see us running through the street naked. Not that a lot of the town would mind.

I slipped through the trees around the back of the house to the back patio. This door was the only one large enough for me to fit through in my phased state and there was no way in hell someone could see me from there. But I still stayed ducked down behind the house and kept my eyes open for anyone walking around.

Emily was in the kitchen, right next to the sliding glass door. I was hoping she'd seen me approach, but she was watching something in the microwave revolve on the glass plate. The counters were covered in flour and sugar. I almost laughed. Of course she'd be preparing for the next meal in two hours.

I nudged the sliding glass door with my head gently, careful not to let my wet nose touch the almost clean glass or hit it too hard. She and Sam had already replaced the glass three times in the last few years. Emily jumped when she heard me and whirled around, her face frozen into a mask of fear before she recognized me. Her hand flew to her chest and she breathed deeply. I hit the door again and she quickly ran around the dining room table to open the door for me. I shrugged through, barely fitting in the tiny space.

"Do you want some pants or something?" she asked once I'd settled down and stopped moving. I nodded, adjusting myself on the small mat next to the door. She rifled through some laundry that hung on the back of a chair in the living room, coming up with sweatpants that were probably mine to begin with. She handed them to me and pulled a popcorn bag out of the microwave, giving me a little privacy while I shifted back and tugged on the pants quickly.

"So, Jake, is there a reason you're back? Are you back for good? Or are you just looking for the guys?" she asked as she poured the popcorn into a plastic bowl from the wooden cupboards over her head. She peeked behind her back to check if I was decent.

"Actually, there is." I pulled out a chair and sat down. Emily perched herself on the edge of the counter closest to me, grabbing a handful of popcorn and eating them one by one. "I'm not staying for long. It's just… You remember you told me once that Sam had extended family that was always willing to help. And I was hoping that I could get a little of their help until I got...back on my feet. You said they could help with anything..." I trailed off uncomfortably, trying to ignore the stabs of pain in my stomach at the smell of popcorn.

Instantly, Emily got up excitedly and put her bowl down on the table in front of me, racing upstairs. I started shoveling my face full of the buttery food. Maybe I'd get her to make me a lunch box for the road. She returned a minute later with a thick address book, stickey notes poking out between the pages. She set it down on the dining room table and started flipping through it. She hardly noticed me sitting down next to her, the forgotten and empty popcorn bowl in my hands.

"Do you have any idea where you want to go? Any preferable states? Or landmarks?" She was positively beaming, half her mouth pulled up into a smile, the other half still scarred from Sam's attack. I wasn't really expecting her to be as interested as she was.

"Not really. Maybe near a forest so I don't have to worry about phasing? I hadn't really thought about it. Just somewhere far away." I had hoped she would just pull out an address and shove it in my face, telling me to avoid bright lights and large cities, always wear a coat outside, and be polite to my elders. I didn't know that I had different options.

"Oh, I think I've found the perfect place for you," she squealed, pulling out a business card and thrusting it at me. I examined the green card, trying to read the name imprinted there in white. "Her name is Stephanie Queene. She has a house in Colorado. Right next to the National Park. There's no way anyone could spot you coming in and out if you're careful. They even have an over-abundance of deer if you feel like hunting or venison. Perfect spot, I think." I winced at the deer comment and dropped the card, willingly giving her the popcorn bowl back. I took the small piece of paper in my hand and turned it over thoughfully.

"I'll go check it out. Thanks, Em. I owe you." I stood and hugged her tightly. It might be the last time I ever see her or any of the pack ever again.

"Of course. Anything for you, Jacob. Be careful." I kissed the top of her head and left through the glass door. "I love you! Stay safe!" she shouted as I ran out the door, tying the pants to my waste as soon as I got past the edge of the woods.

Hopefully, I could find what I need with this Stephanie Queene.


	3. Anna Molly

Anna-Molly

Thankfully, most of the area between Forks and Colorado was forest. Well, enough for it to be safe to continue the whole path phased. Still, I had to find this place soon. I was starting to get tired. My paws hurt from the pavement I'd had to use to get down a mountain. I was starving. The last thing I'd had to eat was the popcorn in Emily's kitchen almost a day ago. I was going to fall asleep on my feet. I just needed to rest.

No. I was so close. I couldn't stop now. I almost had it. Her house had to be somewhere near here. I'd been going down streets quickly, glancing at addresses.

And then, I found it. It was on an old, short cul-de-sac with large, two story houses lining it. Nice neighborhood. Very ritzy. Her front yard was almost nonexistent. A tree sat in the middle, still young and growing, but strong. It looked small compared to the others on the street. A two car garage barely fit at the top of the short driveway. A Subaru took up most of the space. Her entire lot was filled with her house.

I slid under the archway, noting the open iron doors. I shrank into the shadows, phasing back and pulling the pants on. The nights were warmer here than in Washington.

I walked up the green velvet covered stairs to the front door, trying to come up with something to say to her. I had put it off, hoping to God that when the time came, my brain would come up with it on the spot. Yeah, not happening.

'Hi. I'm Jacob Black. I've been having problems with my friend, who's one amazing girl, and I've come to mooch off you until I get over her.' That's great, Jake. Just wonderful.

I rang the doorbell, sighing, and waited. The blood red, wooden door remained firmly shut. I tried to turn the knob on the iron safety door. Locked. It was really late. I hoped I didn't wake her up. I really hoped she wasn't pissed off right after being awoken. I rang again, this time really leaning into it. A soft click resounded in the high ceilinged area before the chime had ended.

The door was opening.

"Finally," a female voice said.


	4. You're Not Alone

You're Not Alone

I couldn't see inside the house. Shapes were there, but I couldn't distinguish anything, even with the werewolf vision. No defining edges. It was cool, if not a little spooky.

"Yes?" a cool female voice asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Um, Sam's fiancé told me you could help me?" It came out as more of a question than a statement of fact. Was I actually intimidated by her? I couldn't even see the woman. Just her extremely curvy outline.

"Ah, yes. Emily did mention you, Mr. Black," she replied. Her voice was different. Less annoyed and pissed off. It was strange for the tone to change so suddenly. A hint of authority resounded in the small space I was tucked under. She would have no problem commanding respect. The door opened wider.

"Call me Jake," I said in response to the 'Mr. Black' she'd thrown at me. Why had she been so formal? I doubt Emily would refer to me as 'Mr. Black'.

"Come in. The vampires are going to be returning soon. Just before dawn. I doubt you want to stay out there." She stepped out of my way as I walked into a small room.

"Bloodsuckers? Here?" I wondered if I should just leave now.

"Yes. Please don't use that word here. I, personally, don't mind it, but I try to avoid all possibly confrontations. My brother is half vampire."

"How'd that happen?" I asked as she led me up a long flight of carpeted stairs next to the door. I could hear music coming from down the hallways above us.

"My mother was a vampire." She turned to look at me as we passed a black doorway I couldn't see into. "Complicated, I know." She paused in front of a door. "This will be your room. On the right is the bathroom. On the left is my room. You can enter either from inside your room. Feel free to come get me at any time for anything."

I noticed I still hadn't seen her face and I'd blindly followed her into a house when I could barely see her outline next to me.

"My name is Stephanie. And don't worry. No vampires sleep on this side of the building. In fact, nobody sleeps here at all. Just us two. Goodnight."

Before I could say anything in response, she turned and seemed to melt into the darkness. I could even hear her.

Vampires and sleep in the same sentence without a 'don't' in between. Beyond weird. I'd have to think about it in the morning. I needed whatever sleeping surface this room provided.

I opened my door and fumbled around on the wall for the light switch. I flicked it on and immediately wished I hadn't. Fluorescent colors whirled around my eyelids, burning tattoos into them. I turned the light off quickly and looked around again, blinking to get rid of the black spots in my vision. I could see most of everything. The large bed in the corner was the first thing that caught my eye.

I stumbled over to the bed and fell down, fully clothes. I didn't even bother to lift the soft sheets. Damn. It felt so good to rest. Compared to the hard dirt of the night before, this felt like heaven. Maybe I died out there. Two seconds after my head hit the pillow, I fell into a sound sleep.


	5. Aerials

Aerials

I blinked slowly as I woke up. The room was mostly dark except for the light that was coming from somewhere to my left. It was filtering in so slowly, I hardly paid attention to it.

I felt lost and disoriented when I sat up and looked around. I knew exactly where I was, I just had no idea what direction I was facing or what doorway led where. My breathing was almost even. My heart rate was normal. Everything seemed okay,

And then I heard the steady beat pulsing from my right. I sat up and turned towards it. If the door straight in front of me and the bed was the one that led out to the hallway, then it was coming from Stephanie's room. She must still be awake.

I slid off the bed and crept towards the sound. I hoped that she wouldn't know I was listening to her. I recognized the familiar sound. It was "One-X" by Three Days Grace. It paused before restarting.

The pants I was wearing stuck to the slightly humid wall as I tried to slide down it to rest on the soft carpet beneath my feet. It was really comfortable. I tilted my head to get a better whiff of the smell coming from her room.

The familiar scent of werewolf hit me as it snaked under the door between our rooms, wafting towards me. Werewolf? Where was that coming from? Standing up, I opened the wooden door to Stephanie's room quietly, squinting at the bright light coming from the crack I'd made.

My vision was hindered for a moment before my eyes adjusted. From her doorway, I could see her sitting cross-legged on her large, king-sized canopy bed. She was staring down at something in her lap. It looked like a notebook. When she heard her bedroom door squeak, she smiled before even glancing up at me. She reached over to the stereo on a rolling table beside her bed to turn a grey knob on it.

"Hey," she whispered softly, knowing I could hear her clearly from where I was standing. She got up from her bed slowly, careful of what she'd been looking at. I noticed she hit it from me. Instantly, I was curiously avoiding looking at it. What was it?

"Hey," I replied as I took notice of her simple attire. I tried very hard not to have any physiological reaction to her, but it's hard to keep your pupils from dilating voluntarily.

I couldn't help but to notice how tan her long legs looked in the candle light, yellow glow from the lamp on her headboard, and those skimpy shorts. I'm not sure she even knew she was wearing them. God, and her shirt… She had obviously thought it was baggy because it was tied up with cloth ribbons at both shoulders and the base of her spine. It almost looked like she was getting ready to play an informal tennis match against Rafael Nadal.

My eyes roved across her body and up to her face for the first time. It was the first time I had looked her in the eyes.

A feeling of slow serenity washed over me as my brown eyes met hers. Oh, no. Please, no. Don't let this happen. It can't. I absolutely refuse to acknowledge it.

Even so, the feeling stayed and I found myself happy that I had woken up early enough in the morning just to see her. Just to be in the same room with her.

I didn't want to deal with an imprint. And I knew she didn't want to, either.


	6. Prayer Of The Refugee

Prayer of The Refugee

"I was just wondering where the music was coming from," I told her. Stephanie nodded and looked back into my dark room. _Animal I Have Become_ started playing and she reached over, stabbing a button and turning down the volume. _Riot_ speared the silent air.

"Oh. Well." She looked around, thinking. "What do you want?" I flinched slightly. Harsh.

"I know that sounded all mean and everything, but still. You didn't come in here just because you wanted to know where the music was coming from." And how did she know this? "Because I read minds, too." Okay, that was creepy. "You have no idea." I sat down at the foot of her bed.

"Oh, really? Do you know why I'm here?" I asked, doubting.

"Not really, no. You keep thinking of Ed, though. Please tell me this doesn't have to do with him," she pleaded. It was almost as if others had come to here, fleeing from Edward. "Yeah. And they're mostly female." She glared at the ground. "I don't empathize with chicks. Not usually. I deal with the guys."

A howl rippled through the building, raising the hair on the back of my neck.

"Don't worry about it," she told me. "It's just one of the many packs here, converging like they do every night." When she looked down again, it was in loneliness. She didn't have a pack, either? Yet she houses them? For all I knew, she wasn't even human. I sniffed the air. Woah.

Nothing I've ever smelled smelled this good. It was sweet. Vampire sweet. But the smell of humans and werewolves diluted it down a bit until it was the best scent ever. I was already addicted to it.

"So, why are you here?" I turned my attention back to her. "Emily said you ran away just before they got married, she led. I didn't really want to tell her, but I knew I couldn't keep that secret from her.

She was my imprint, after all.


	7. Would?

Would?

"Yes, I know I'm your imprint," she mumbled, glaring over my shoulder at the empty, black doorway I'd left open behind me. I stared at her for a moment and neither of us said anything. After a minute of relative silence, I recognized the sound of _Grim Goodbye _by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus coming from her speakers. The first few lines almost made me smile. They reminded me of my situation. It was almost like a poetic summary. "I understand how you feel," Stephanie said, responding to my thoughts. She straightened and looked me in the eye, a determined expression on her face.

"What's going on?" I asked, surprised by her sudden mood shift.

"About this imprinting thing, there may be something you need to know," she said. I raised my eyebrows in amazement. "I'm not quite like you. I am what you call a werewolf, but there's more to it than that. I'm also a vampire, a shape shifter, a witch, and part elf. This means I have the ability to imprint, as well."

"What do you mean 'what I call a werewolf'? Are you trying to say we're something else?"

"Well, technically, you, Sam, and the others are shape shifters who derived from lycans. Werewolf literally means 'man to wolf', describing men who have the ability to shift into the form of a wolf. I, on the other hand, am from the original lycans."

"How? And part elf? You're not exactly short." I imprinted on an elf. Great. I smiled. Of course, I get the crazy one. She scowled at me and my smile widened. I was going to have to stop annoying her so much. If what she said was true, she might eat me in my sleep.

"Yes, I might just do that. Tearing you apart and chewing on what's left would be perfectly fine with me right now," she murmured.

My mind conjured an image of her lips on my neck, nibbling up my jaw, tongue pressing into that perfect spot near my collarbone… Maybe Stephanie eating me wouldn't be all that bad of an idea, now that you mention it. Her face grew dark as she snarled at me.

"Jacob," she warned.

"Sorry. You're the one who brought it up," I said.

"Oh, don't even try to pin this on me. You know very well I meant killing you. _You_ are completely responsible of _that_ being introduced." Her nose crinkled as she remembered my thoughts.

"Well, yeah, but you set me up for it. I'm sure most men would think along the same lines. Especially if they were in my position. You had to know that."

"Oh, really? Your position? And what exactly is your position? Being a giant dick?"

"My position is standing right here. You're wearing those skimpy shorts and that tiny shirt that leaves just enough uncovered that I want more. Your body's driving me crazy!" I was shouting now. And she was glaring at me. I sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Okay, I'm sorry. It was my fault for bringing up anything related to sex, but you have to know it was justified."

"Oh, no. You are the one at fault here, Jacob. It wasn't me. My mind never goes that far. If me dressing this way is going to be a problem, feel free to go back to your room," she said, pointing at the room behind me.

My eyebrows rose and I stepped closer to her. She hissed at me in annoyance.

"No. I just apologized for something I don't think is my fault and you just shoot me down?"

"Just leave, Jacob," she said, turning her back to me, fiddling with the music box on the table in front of her. "Leave. Before I actually dig my fangs into your flesh." The next song started playing into the air.

I practically ran across the room to reach around her and shut it off. Four seconds hadn't even passed since _Fall For You_ by Secondhand Serenade started.

"Hey!" she cried, pushing me away, reaching to turn the song back on.

"No," I said, grabbing her arm and trapping it at her side. "Let's not listen to that one, okay?" She glared up at me for a moment. "Please, Steph? Please." I rested my chin on her head momentarily, not wanting to lose the opportunity.

"Well, you can go back to your room and let me do what I wish in mine."

"I'm sorry. I don't want to. You're my imprint and you're upset. I can't leave you alone while you're all hot and bothered. Not unless you tell me to and mean it."

"Hot and bothered? I hardly think so. And what about yourself? Horny much?" I gaped at her for a second.

I'm not horny; I'm turned on. You're barely hanging onto your shirt, you're sexy, and I seem to have left my shirt in my room." She stared at me in confusion. "I'm half naked and the imprint makes me want to tackle you to the bed." Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said that. Not good.

"No, it most certainly is not good. Not even slightly good. Damn, Jacob," she mumbled, looking down.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Again. I didn't mean to. I'll stop saying stupid stuff like that, I promise," I said, trying to make up for what had come out of my mouth.

"I would accept your apology if I were sure that you weren't going to do it again. Which you will. The problem is that I can't _not_ accept your apology."

"Why not?"

"You understand imprinting, Jacob. I am part werewolf, you remember. It's an all or nothing scenario," she mumbled.

"Wait, what? You returned my imprint?"

"Well, yeah."

"Really?"

"Yes, Jacob."

"That's great!"

"Not when I'm mad at you," she grumbled.

"Like hell I'm going to do that again," I said. "If you don't want me to do it, I won't. That's what imprints do. We help each other. You know that." She turned her back to me.

"Can you just leave?" she asked. I thought I heard her sniffle.

"No, I will not leave." I gently turned her around. Her soft face was already streaked with tears. Had I done that? My heart stopped. "What's wrong?" I pulled her into my chest, my hands wrapping around her back, and felt her tears on my skin.

"Nothing," she whispered. I sighed as I felt her breath on my collarbone. My arms tightened reflexively.

"There has to be something, Steph. Please tell me," I said near her ear. I could smell her scent in her hair. It smelled so good. It was a concentrated version of her. She pulled away.

"I can't. Just go back to your room. Rocco'll be up soon. He'll wonder what you're doing in here." Rocco? Funny name.

"Find," I said. "I'll be right there if you need me."

I slinked back into the total darkness.


	8. Never Too Late

Never Too Late

I found out who Rocco was early the next morning. It wasn't what I'd call a happy experience. He was big, tall, and angry, sporting muscles and snakebite piercings. I didn't have time to ask him if he had tattoos while he was trying to pummel me.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" I asked when I woke up to him trying to snap my head off. I danced away from his grasp.

"You were with Stephanie last night, weren't you?" he demanded.

"What? Who?"

"Stephanie, stupid. The chick that let you in here yesterday. I know you were with her last night," he accused, eyes flashing.

"Well, yeah. We had an argument and then she started crying and made me leave, so I came back in here. Why do you care?" I asked.

The door between the bathroom and my bedroom opened and Stephanie walked out, closing the door behind her. She froze when she saw us standing there. I started walking towards her.

"Rocco? What are you doing?" she asked, stepping closer to us. Stupid bloodsucker. Too pussy to fight me in front of her. Rocco growled at me, fangs elongated. Did I miss something? "Jacob, he can hear you, too. Stop thinking like that. It's not helping."

"Sorry. Didn't know."

Steph pushed against his chest, admonishing him for attempting to fight as she backed him into the hallway. He seemed to be struggling hard against her. Any moment now, she was going to lose control of him and he was going to come crashing into me. I kept my body tense, waiting to phase. She managed to get him through the door and closed it.

She pushed the hair from her face and tried to calm her breathing, chest rising and falling rapidly for a minute.

"Jacob, I don't know where you're going with that, but let's not go there, okay?" I looked up into her face. "I'm not sure how long you'd live if you finished that."

"Why the hostility?" I asked as she approached me to grab my arm and propel me out of the room. I followed willingly after I smelled the food. "Where are we going?"

"I'll tell you when we get our breakfast."

Breakfast was nothing if not interesting. Stephanie got herself food and dragged me behind her like a large tail. I looked at the selection, choosing food as I went, enticed by Stephanie's scent fading from the spot next to me. I grabbed what I considered to be enough for me and turned back to continue after her.

"I usually eat upstairs, but I figure I can show you around if I eat outside with you," she said, glancing into all the angry faces that passed us.

"Oh, I'm perfectly comfortable eating upstairs in our rooms. I mean, I'm sure we could sit i—"

"Nope. We're eating outside. I promise that no one will attempt to hurt you when you're with me, despite whatever Rocco may have told them." She guided me through the sliding glass back door.

"You should stop doing that if you don't want me to continue thinking stuff like last night," I said after she'd glared at me a few times. I was rewarded when her eyes closed and her brow furrowed in anger and disgust.


	9. The Dirt Whispered

The Dirt Whispered

Once we were situated under a tree, she started tearing into the food she'd managed to grab before it was all taken by the other members that seemed to come and go from the house as they pleased. Many people had passed us on the way to the garage, she'd explained to me.

We were sitting on a long, narrow, raised garden that seemed to signify the end of her property. A fence sprung up behind it, blocking sunlight and straying eyes from hitting the two of us. The four foot platform seemed a small sanctuary for the tall girl beside me.

A small bush had been shoved aside so many times, it was actually bowed and bent to one side, creating a little alcove, just big enough for the two of us to sit comfortable, side by side. Someone walking past would not notice anything particularly different about the bush unless they were standing right next to the fence and looking directly at us. The garden was filled with long irises and short trees and bushes. Bunches of small, white flowers lined the colored rocks that separated the well-cut grass from the carefully placed mulch.

I turned my head to the right and watched Stephanie shred a piece of bacon into tiny parts before finally placing every one onto the same place. For some reason, the entranced me and I couldn't bring myself to look away and start in on my own food. After a few moments, she seemed to notice that I hadn't even started eating my own portion of the meal. She glanced at me, questioning and waited until I had picked up a pancake and shoved it into my mouth.

For the rest of the morning, I watched her dissect her food before eating it. I'd never seen anyone eat like it and wondered how all of it had started. I hoped that it had nothing to do with Rocco. I intended to keep him from jumping on me like he had before. I was worried that one of us would get angry enough to kill the other. It was in our natures to hate the other, as well.

"Yeah, but I don't think that he'll hurt you anytime soon," she said. Dang. I'd forgotten about the mind-reading. "It's okay. Most people do." She looked over at me again. "Are you done with breakfast? It doesn't seem that you've eaten as much as the rest of the werewolves usually do." I let my gaze fall into the almost full plate that still rested on my folded legs. I'd hardly noticed that my feet had bypassed the strange, prickly feeling and gone straight to full-out numb while I'd been watching the food disappear from her plate in the small dots of sunlight that fell through the ceiling of leaves and twigs that had been created through nature.

I tried to focus on filling my empty belly with the good-smelling, yet cold food waiting for me. I found myself less hungry than normal. I just didn't want to eat. I wanted to stay with Stephanie, where I knew I wouldn't get jumped for being here.

"I already told you. Rocco won't hurt you. Anybody that's lived here for longer than two days knows that I will stand up for anyone in this house, be they old or new. I think it unjustified for him to want to attack you. Even instinct can be fought. I would know," she added, commenting on the pattern in which my thoughts had been straying. She seemed sad and detached when she finished, like her thoughts had taken her somewhere else and she wasn't quite willing to go there without same sort of mental armor or protection.

She had been harmed. Severely hurt. And I wanted to know. I wanted to help in some way, find something that I could do. Something that could get her away from the pain of whatever memories she was reliving.


	10. I Don't Care

I Don't Care

"So, what's the point of dragging me out here when Rocco could come out and kill me? Do you hate me that much, Steph? That's just painful," I said, playfully shoving her to the side. She barely moved. She was starting to get depressed again. I could barely handle her when she was going through her normal emotions.

"Nothing. I already told you that you wouldn't et hurt while you're with me. No one would dare touch you while I'm still alive. Not anymore," she said, turning away from me. She was looking down at the remains of our breakfast with a sad, distant expression clouding her features. It was as if something like this had happened earlier and certain things that were happening now were reminding her of past experiences. Her internal pain was almost too much to handle.

"Well then, come on. If I have free reign over all of this, then how come I haven't gotten the grand tour yet?" I urged, trying to herd her out into the sunshine where everything seemed to be a little happier. She sighed and started shoving her way out of the bush. As she entered the backyard again, she turned to me with a half smile on her face. I caught my breath. Damn, she was amazing.

"Oh, and Jake. I'm not depressed. Just thinking," she teased, walking back toward the glass door we'd exited from, with me scrambling my way through leaves and branches trying to follow her as fast as I could. I'd forgotten about the whole mind-reading thing. Again.

As we walked through the grass, she tried to explain to me what peoples schedules usually looked like in the house.

"Some of them take classes online at night, so they'll do the course and leave the homework for the next night when they don't have anything to do. They'll have dinner, play a few video games, read, pretty much any kind of entertainment, we can offer it," she said, gesturing to the T.V. room window we were passing by. "Werewolves do it during the day and vampires at night when it's less sunny. You've seen what happens to them." She shot me an annoyed look, as if it were all my fault what was going on here.

"So, you're saying that I can do almost anything that I want without getting in trouble for it?" I asked, looking at her with wide eyes. She merely shrugged.

"Pretty much. I don't care," she said.

"Cool."


	11. Girlfriends

A few minutes later, I decided that it was time to call Sam and Emily. They needed to know that I had made it, that I was okay. Not that they were too worried about me. They all knew that I could take care of myself. No matter what happened to me.

I was directed to one of the phones. The one that was in Stephanie's room. Even thought I knew I would have gotten in trouble for being in there, I grabbed it confidentiality. If anyone were to challenge me, I could take them. Even that Rocco dude had nothing on me when I was angry and protecting something. Like the girl I was practically in love with. Wait, I did not think that. Was that a little soon? I mean, come one. I had only known her for a day, not even that. I hate imprinting. It ruins the way the world works.

I dialed the number and waited for the answering machine to pick up. It was an unknown number and I knew nobody would answer. When the familiar greeting ended halfway through and a new voice came through the speaker, I gasped in shocked. I definitely was not expecting this or, rather, her.

"Jake!" she squealed, her voice two octaves higher than anyone's here. She must have been excited. But what was she doing answering Emily's phone? She wasn't even supposed to be there. Last I heard of her, she was visiting California with her keeper. That had to mean he was... Oh, no. I winced, waiting for the masculine voice to sound in my ears.

"Yo, Jake. Man, this babysitting thing has really started to annoy me. Hell, it's been pissing me off for a while now. No, Claire, honey, not that kind of pissing. Stop listening to me, kid." I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore Quil's playful banter. "Anyway, so I come home this morning to chaos. Bella's at Sam's crying her eyes out and Emily says something about you not coming back. You went to a random house and asked if you could stay there? Jeesh, man."

"What random house?" I asked. It hadn't been random at all. Emily had told me to go there. All of it she'd come up with. Well, until the part when I got there and imprinted. That wasn't exactly planned out. Right?

"The one you're at right now. Emily said to ask you for all the details, but Bella kept saying something about you going to a random house," he explained. That made more sense. Bella would have seen it that way. To her, I was with some girl that nobody had talked to in forever, at some house in some state she's only heard of because she flew over it once. Barely. I should have known she'd react like this. "Do you mind letting me in on this?" I sighed.

"Okay, so you were running Claire to Cali when I left, right?" I heard a mumbled grunt which I took to mean yes. "Okay, so Emily told me about this place in Colorado that house wolves and vamps. I'll explain about the leeches in a minute. Anyway, I go, right? And there's this chick. She runs the place. It's like military only, you can go anywhere you want. Breakfast is now, lunch is then, whatever. Everything's perfectly timed and everyone knows who's who and where they're supposed to be at any given time. It's actually way amazing."

"So, what about the vamps?" he asked. I could tell that he was worried we'd have to make a treaty with them, too. Or avenge my death. A door opened and closed behind me and I saw Stephanie lead Rocco toward the other end of the halls. I was silent until they closed another door behind them. I wondered what they were doing, but quickly gave up on it, deciding that I really didn't want to know.

"Well, apparently, the Stephanie girl, you know, the one that runs the place, is part vamp, so she lets her kind in, too."

"Wait, she's part vamp and werewolf? That's crazy. I didn't even know that was possible. How'd that work out? Vamps can't have kids, can they?"

"Not females, which means her dad was the vamp and her mom was a wolf." This realization just made things a lot more difficult. Where did the elf come in? Was her great-grandmother the elf queen?


	12. Vindicated

"Man, that sounds crazy. What other stuff goes on there? I'm startin' to worry about you." I smiled. He didn't know half of it.

"Well, her room's right next to mine and there's this door separating us. I woke up halfway through the night and there's a light coming under the door, right? We talk a little in her room and I go back to bed, right? Thinkin' nothing of it," I said, building up my story.

"Wait. She's got a boyfriend, right? Dude, you're screwed."

"Thanks, man. But no. I wake up 'cause this huge guy's in my room yellin' at me. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about. I was like, who the fuck are you? And where am I? I didn't remember what happened for a minute. Then he comes at me, fists flying."

"Do we have to come over there and kill him now?" Quil asked. I laughed. Oh, he'd love to be able to beat up a real vamp for once. He'd managed to avoid most of the fights we'd been though and he was pissed about it.

"No. I took care of it. Or Stephanie did, anyway. So, he accuses me of sleeping with her or something and he didn't believe me when I told him what really happened. Then Steph comes out of the bathroom and pulls him off me. She sent him away. And get this: She's stronger than he is. She pushed him right out the door, hardly breaking a sweat. One of us would have had problems shoving him out of the way." I could practically hear his brain try to work out what he'd just heard.

"Maybe it has something to do with the half vamp thing. It could make you stronger or something." It was a good theory. I'd have to ask her about it. She might not tell me, but I'd get it out of her. Somehow.

"Oh, and both of them can read thoughts. Like Edward, but they seem to react differently to it. Maybe they haven't gotten used to it yet."

"I'll ask Sam about it. We'll figure something out. You try to work things out on your end, alright?"

"Sure. Yeah. I'll get something out of them. So, on another note, how is everyone? You said Bella was there, freakin' out."

"Oh, yeah. I thought she'd be the first thing you'd ask about when I mentioned her. What gives?" For a moment, I debated on whether to tell him. He knew what it was like.

"I imprinted," I said. I was afraid of what he'd say. He may understand, but he was also one to pick fun of anyone for anything.

"No way! On who?" He sounded excited. Not good.

"Stephanie," I mumbled. Now I was going to get it. He was going to pick my heart apart bit by bit. I wouldn't be able to face her for weeks after this. Great. I knew I shouldn't have done it.

"Dude, really? That's crazy. Is she hot? Can she cook good?"

"Whoa, whoa. Hold up. Wait. Yes, she's attractive. And I'm not sure if she can cook. And she imprinted on me, too. But I'm not sure that she likes me back. She's so distant all the time. She went through something horrible and I want to figure it out."

"That's deep, man. So, what should I tell Bella. She'll want to know." Oh, yeah. She'd probably twist everything that anyone said. She was very protective. But she didn't love me the way I wanted her to. And now, it wasn't a problem.

"Just tell her the truth. She knows what's true and if she hears from someone who hears from me, she'll be fine. Tell everyone that I wasn't running from them, merely running towards the love of my life." I cringed, painfully squeezing my eyes closed. Wrong words. Wrong words. Oh, great. I hope she wasn't paying attention. Nobody needed to hear that. Ever. Well, at least, not until she said she loved me, too.

"Strong words, Jake. You might want to tone it down if you don't want anyone to know." A door slammed somewhere behind me and I looked over my shoulder. Nothing different.

"I know. I'm just worried she's going to kick my ass out and insist that she never sees me again." A deep breath indicated that Quil was going to contradict me. "I know that it's really hard for imprints to be separated for long periods of time, but I wouldn't put it past her. She's crazy strong."

"You got it bad, Jake. If you're starting to admire her for kickin' your ass to Chine and back, you're royally fucked." Gee, thanks for that reassuring vote of confidence.

Stephanie's door banged against the opposite wall and I turned to see Rocco standing there, practically breathing steam.

"Uh, Quil? I'm gonna have to talk to you later. Rocco doesn't look happy.:

"What? No, wait. I wanna hear this." Before I could respond, Stephanie flew in after him, more pissed than anyone I'd ever seen. If she was half wolf, how could she keep her form like that?

"I swear, Rocco. I will kick you out. I don't care what's happened or how things have worked out, so help me, I will send you back." Her voice froze him in his tracks.

"Is that that hot girl?" Quil asked. I sighed. Rocco turned in my direction.

"Gotta go. Bye." I hung up, blocking out his protests. "what are you upset about?" I asked.

"You imprinted on Stephanie? What the hell is wrong with you? Can't you tell she doesn't want you?" I looked shocked. Didn't he know how it works? Nobody chooses their imprint. If it did, Emily and Sam wouldn't be together and Bella and I would've hit it off long ago. Edward wouldn't have had a chance.

Rocco roared and lunged at me, seemingly oblivious to Stephanie standing in his way. I stared at her in horror as they collided. She growled in anger and possibly pain. I almost stepped forward to grab her out of the way, but I realized she probably had more control over this than I did. I was just waiting to see her phased.

I got my wish, but it wasn't what I had expected.

She shoved him away with more strength than I'd ever hand. She opened her mouth and I saw two rows of razor-sharp teeth grow sharper and longer. Her skin color changed to a dark blue and she hissed as the ribs in her sides shifted, making room for the large lungs and heart that I knew was expanding. She obviously hadn't done this for a while.

Rocco's instincts had taken over a while before. He saw her as only a pawn in his path. He wanted me dead and she was going to have to moved. I had a feeling she wasn't going to no matter what he did.

He lunged at her, his teeth glistening in the low lighting. She growled in response, bending down to attack.


	13. Oil And Water

The room was big enough to fit me fully phased, I noticed.

Rocco had slammed Stephanie against the nearest wall and was nearing her neck. I could only imagine what that blood would do to him. She snapped her jaws at his shoulder, barely missing the exposed skin. He moved backward, avoiding the bite. But why? It wouldn't have hurt much. It would have only broken a little skin.

I let all of my anger flood my body, letting it consume my muscles and tendons. He was going to pay for hurting her. My body exploded with the force of my rage, propelling me toward him.

Rocco's hand reached out to grab my arm. He twisted it and pulled, popping the bones out of their places and severing the joints. I growled in annoyance. This was nothing compared to the emotional and physical pain I'd gone through.

Somehow, I had to get him away from her. I had to protect her. She wouldn't last against him for very long, I thought.

I shoved his body, hard, twisting my neck to the left. He was sent through the wall, scrabbling against brick and wood as he fell to the ground on the other side of what once was the wall.

There was a large, open meadow that extended for a quarter of a mile. It was lined with plants and a wall with several metal doors. Trellises ran above the gardens below me. A single fountain stood in the middle, pouring water and bubbles into the basin in the bottom. I'd have to come out here later. When Rocco wasn't here any longer.

A smaller, pitch-black wolf ran past me, leaping and clearing the rubble below in one bound. I turned behind me. Stephanie was gone. Or was the second wolf her?

Rock lifted up as Rocco stood, shaking off dust. I jumped down near him, growling. He hissed at me and sprang, catching me off guard.

His teeth sank into my collar bone and I howled out loud. If scary movies and old books had anything to say on the subject, I would did from being bitten. Wonderful way to die. I fought him off, my feet scratching at his chest and stomach, clawing off a good portion of marble-like flesh.

An eerie sound lifted through the air toward us. It was a screech, but it had a sort of rhythmic tone to it, too. It was hauntingly beautiful. A bright flash of power hit us, breaking through all of my mental barriers. Rocco covered his ears and wobbled slightly. A rush of pure pain wrapped around me and I fell to the ground in terror.

Rocco seemed to be going through the same things, but he was dealing with it better. He was stumbling away from the bright light coming from behind me.

I tried to stand and took one shaky step towards him, trying to at least get him farther away from Stephanie.

Black spots swayed before my eyes. I fell again and clenched my teeth to stop the howl of pain from coming through.

Everything went gray, swiveled before my eyes and faded into darkness.


	14. My Immortal

When I woke up, everything was still dark. I was in the room that Stephanie had given me, but it was almost pitch black. And there was someone else there, too.

I tried to push myself up so I could at least defend myself if someone attacked me. Was it Rocco? Please, no.

"Sit back down, idiot," someone yelled. I collapsed in shock. Stephanie came out of the bathroom, holding a soaking wet towel. "How do you feel?" she asked.

Agony ripped through my body when I tried to focus on pain. It hurt like hell! I didn't ever remember going through this much intense pain. I gasped and tried to maintain my breathing and healing motions, but my mind was too clouded.

"That's what I thought," she said, coming over and wiping the towel down my arm. The burning sensation was getting worse. She circled around my wrist a few times before pulling away.

"Why does it feel like I'm on fire?" I asked through me teeth. She smiled and pressed the cloth against my neck.

"He bit you, right?" I nodded. "Well, there you go. It's the venom going through you."

"How do we get it out?" I asked, starting to panic. Would we never get it out? Was it even possible to?

"The same way it got in. Now, we got all the blood of of you, but it would be helpful if you stopped bleeding. To do that, you have to concentrate. To do _that_, the venom has to be taken out by me." She draped my right arm over the side of the bed and put my left straight out from my body so I was stretched out and my torso was perpendicular to my arms.

"This could get a little...awkward, but please try not to move. I won't take out too much blood. Don't worry."

"Why does it sound like I'm an interesting once-in-a-life-time patient?" I asked. She let go of my arm and placed her hands on the side of the bed.

"You are. Not many werewolves get bitten by vampires. Their worlds don't really co-exist. Then, they write treaties like your tribe.

"But, when one does get bitten, I have to putt it out. It's uncomfortable, but very efficient. I've never had an imprint. That's where things get complicated.

"When you share blood with your imprint, things can get...messy. I'm not really happy about having to do this to you because of it."

I blinked a few times. "So what? Messy? What do you mean?"

"When Sam and Emily...well, she's pregnant now, yes?"

"Yeah, but I don't get it."

"She got pregnant the day Sam accidentally drank some of her blood. It's like you can't resist your imprint any longer. But I like to think I have better self control than that." She looked away and put the towel on a metal table next to her. "We're also going to avoid me biting you. I'll make a small cut right here." She traced a line across my wrist lightly. "And then, well, it'll work."

I looked at her face. She looked almost embarrassed. There was no blush on her cheeks, but she kept her eyes averted from me. She seemed completely engrossed in the task, but I knew her mind was somewhere else.

And she was going to suck my blood. Why did that sound amazingly erotic? Maybe because she's hot? Or it could be the amount of cleavage I could see from where I was.

"Thank you for notifying me of that, Jake," she said, pulling the corners of her button-up shirt together. I mentally sighed. Oh, well.

"Okay. This may hurt a bit. But, please don't move an inch while I do this, okay?" I nodded. I couldn't deny her anything. Not now.

Her dark hair was pulled up into a long, wavy pony-tail. I imagined what she'd look like if it were splayed about on the pillow beneath me... No! Bad thoughts. Bad! I shook my head, trying to get rid of the picture.

I watched her carefully cut a small slice into my vein at my wrist. A bead of blood pooled out and my breathing hitched, becoming more shallow. Stephanie's tongue flicked out to stop it from falling to the ground. My eyelids drooped. Her mouth attacked to me and I felt a pull in my veins.

Awkward? She called _this_ awkward? There wasn't anything awkward, just weird. Different.

She was my imprint, so I loved her. End of story. Cut and dry. Simple.

Yeah, not anymore.

I wanted her. She was more than my world now. I couldn't live without her. She was perfect. I _needed_ her.

I tried to stay still, but it was hard. The feeling of pain was slowly going away. But that wasn't the problem. I wanted to hold Steph. I didn't want her so far from me.

The last tugging sensation on my arm made me look at her. She lifted her head and gazed at me.

Her long lashes cast her eyes in shadow, but they glowed with ferocity and happiness. Her mouth had lines of blood flowing down the side, darkening her red lips, making her a part of a fairy-tale story. She reached up to take her hair down, but I stopped her and did it myself.

Her face was so close to mine. It was tempting to lean in and brush my lips against hers and clean off my blood for her. She was right. It could get messy.

I let my eyes graze over her face, stopping at her mouth,. I wondered what she'd tast like. What I tasted like on her.

I leaned forward and caught her bottom lip between mine.


	15. Life Line

Another fire started in me, but it was a lot lower and more pleasant.

Stephanie's lips moved against mine, slowly. My left hand reached up to hold her to me. Her fingers trailed up my arm, feeling the muscles ripple. I let her climb up to the bed and hover over me. I captured her lips again.

My hand slipped down to unbutton the top of her shirt. A black bra was visable. I pulled back to kiss my way down her neck to her breasts. She moaned and pressed herself closer to me. I wanted to feel all of her flesh against mine.

The phone in her room rang and we both jumped breathing hard. _No!_ my brain screamed at me. She reached over to the metal table next to the bed and picked up a phone.

"Hello?" she asked, breathlessly. "No, we're just...yes, I know...I did...yes, I did...I did! What do you want? I'm busy...thanks." She hung up and looked down at me. She laughed. I frowned.

"What?" I asked.

"You've got blood on your mouth," she giggled. I grabbed the towel and swiped it across my face. "Yeah. You got it." I wiped it on her lips, too. "Hey," she said.

I smiled at her and she sat up, straddling my stomach.

We were laying on top of the sheets, my arms around her waist, her hands on my chest. She was wearing a small pair of short and her button-up shirt. From where I was—laying back on a pillow—I could almost see... No. Don't think that.

"Oh? You can?" she said, looking down at her legs. She wiggled a little so they rode up a little more. I groaned and lightly ran my fingertips up her thighs. Her back arched and she bent down to kiss me.

Someone knocked on the door. We both looked at it and she got up, rebuttoning her shirt. I opened the door and we stood there, staring.

"Hello, Jacob," Edward said.


	16. Learning

"Edward. What are you—" Stephanie broke off abruptly, understanding something I was kept from. She glanced up at me. "I guess I'll you boys talk alone." She headed back toward her room, the metal table in front of her. I grabbed her wrist before she could leave.

"See you after, okay? I need to talk to you about that," I said, gesturing to the bed. She nodded and bit her lower lip. My eyes followed her movement and I leaned down to capture her mouth with mine. I cupped her cheek and placed my hand on her waist. I pulled away and pecked her forehead. "I love you. 'Bye." She leaned up and pulled my top lip down, into hers. I groaned and licked her bottom lip, begging for entrance.

She back up to the wall, dragging her fingers down my bare chest. My right hand drifted down to her ass, pulling her tighter to me. Her tongue probed mine, teasing it into her mouth. She sucked on mine and slipped her first fingers into my boxers.

"Ahem," Edward said, breaking the two of us apart, I moved the strands of hair hanging in her face with my left hand.

"I love you, too," she said, kissing me again. I watched her close the door to her room before I turned to look at Edward. I did a double-take.

"Edward? What happened?" He looked awful.

His hair was disheveled and practically sticking out straight. Almost as if he'd put a finger in a wall socket. He had mud and twigs all over him. His clothes were dirty and scratched up, barely hanging onto their originial shape.

"I ran here. Just like you did. Bella wanted me to come, so I did," he said, placing a hand on his knee and sitting down on the chair.

"Why does she want to come back? She knows about Steph, right?"

"That's why," he said. "There's something else, too." I sat down, waiting. He didn't speak for a moment.

"What is it, Edward? She's not dead, right? Please tell me that wasn't her last wish."

"No, no, no. No. Sit back down. It's not that bad. I promise. Stephanie's guess is right, though." I turned to look into her room.

"What was her guess?" I asked.

"Bella's pregnant."


	17. Interlude

"How?"

"Um..." Edward coughed delicately, hoping that I would make him not answer. Lucky for him, I didn't want to know.

"I mean, when? How long ago? Not the fundamentals," I said, standing up to pace the room and glared at him.

"Oh, about three weeks ago. We didn't find out exactly what was going on until she started to notice that a few things were missing," he said, raising his eyebrows and glancing meaningfully at the floor. I was too preoccupied to put my brain to work.

"What? What was missing?" I asked, hoping her body was still intact.

"Her monthly...um..."

"Oh. Nevermind."

"She wants you to come back to Forks so you'll be there when she has the baby." I looked at him.

He came all the way here to tell me this? Bella could have told me that over the phone. There had to be something else here that I wasn't picking up on.

Stephenie's door burst open.

"Next month? What did you do to her?" I turned to see Steph standing in the doorway, glaring at Edward, who was cringing.

"If you got knocked up three weeks ago, how in the name of Isis is she due by the end of next month?"

"What?" I stared at her in disbelief before changing my gaze to Edward.

"Apparently, vampire children grow at an extremely quick rate and we're expecting the two of you to come join us for a baby shower and the birth." I gasped in shock.

"Okay...I'm not seeing how we suddenly got pregnant. Can't vampire not have kids?" I was starting to get very confused.


	18. The Saddest Song

Stephanie turned to me to explain. Her brown hair twinkled in the darkness. I wanted to wrap my fingers around it and tug her lips to mine. We could continue where we left off when Edward arrived.

"Jacob!" both Edward and Stephanie cried. Steph looked embarrassed. Edward was more shocked.

"What?" I glared at Edward. "Stay out of my mind!"

"Gladly," he said, obviously trying to push the pictures out of his head. "Please remember sex makes babies."

"You would know."

"Shut up."

"And this brings us back full circle," Steph said, interrupting our minor fight. "Because men don't physically alter their bodies during the pregnancy cycle, they can father children with human mothers. Mothers, of course, physically changing during pregnancy."

I turned and glared at Edward. The only good thing out of this was that Bella was still human.

"Ah," Edward groaned.

"Not for very long. In order for her to live, she needs to be turned into a vampire during delivery."

"And why do I have to see this? I don't want to watch her be killed by a little tyke in her body."

"We were hoping Stephanie could help us in that department. She has some background in this, so we figured she'd know what to do. It's all trial and error right now," Edward explained.

"The error being the loss of Bella's life!" I took a step towards him. I didn't know what I was going to do to him, but it was going to be painful.

Steph's hand gripped my wrist and I froze. I couldn't hurt him. Not if she didn't want me to.

"Why?" Edward asked. "Why won't you hurt me merely because of someone else's opinion?"

Stephanie coughed and looked at the floor. "Um...well, you know about imprinting. Bella told you, correct?" He nodded. "Well, I may not be traditional, but I'm still a werewolf, too."

"But this is not a usual imprint. Don't werewolves imprint on each other a lot? Leah has."

"No. They imprint on another wolf, but rarely does that wolf imprint back." She winced as she watched Edward think this through.

"Oh, God," he said, staring at the floor. "Bella had hoped that Steph had found a way to deter you from expanding on your feelings. I don't think she's going to like this."

"Jacob and I can't go back to Washington with you," Stephanie said. I wondered why she included herself in that and said 'back' to Washington. "I have to be here and Jake won't leave without me. I'm sorry to have caused so much trouble," she said, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Do you think you could call us and explain how we can care for Bella better? I don't think it's possible to communicate that distance mentally, even for you," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

"That's why I moved here," Stephanie said, telling the truth.

"Thank you," Edward said, holding his hand out to shake.

The phone rang again and we all turned to look at it.


	19. Hallelujah

Stephanie grabbed the handset and answered. She covered the mouthpiece and looked at Edward.

"It's Carlisle. Bella's fine, but the rate of growth isn't the same." Edward had paled and collapsed in the chair. "Everything's fine, but I'm fairly certain the baby's female, not male."

She spoke into the phone and had a mental conversation with Edward, relaying the information to Carlisle.

I sat on the bed and stared at the floor. I had to do something with my life. Something other than running and avoiding my problems. I needed a job and a degree. I could get a GED and get into college easily. I had to pick a college and get a car, work at a garage somewhere near here...

"Jake?" I glanced up at Steph. Edward was gone. "Ed left to go back home. I gave them all the information I knew. They'll call if they need more help." I nodded, looking up into her face.

"Do you have a computer I can borrow? I want to go apply for a job somewhere," I said.

"Sure. There's a laptop in my room, but I have to go to work, so try not to get in any trouble."

"Work? Where?" I tried not to sound desperate, but it was hard. "You never said anything about work."

"Yes, I have a job. No, you can't come with me," she said, opening the door of her room.

She walked to the closet and pushed the door aside. It seemed covered in paper. Stephanie pulled out a tiny miniskirt and thin blouse before digging through the dresser. I watched a black push up bra and matching panties get thrown onto the bed with the rest of the clothes.

"What's this? Why...?" I trailed off when she started unbuttoning her shirt.

"I have to wear it. Part of a uniform, you could say," she said, rebuttoning the black shirt all the way up and taking her white bra off from underneath it. I couldn't force my eyes to look away.

Once she got done dressing, she turned back around to find me sitting on her bed, holding a pillow over my lap.

"Come on, Jacob," she said. "It's not that bad. This is the tame version of my uniform. I'm the bartender tonight." She bit her lip, wondering if she'd said too much.

"As opposed to what? The waitress?"

"Yes, actually." She came to stand in front of me.

"How much money do you make off tips each night?" I asked.

"Usually, a little over fifty grand." I gasped and stared at her. How many men did she let grab her to get that much money? "No! Nothing like that! I do twelve hour shifts in an extremely large bar. It equates out to the normal amount."

"Good. I don't want to have to beat up some puny, human boy. That wouldn't be much fun."

"More fun than you usually have, though, yes?" I glared up at her and she pulled the pillow from my grasp so she could straddle my waist.

I gripped her hips and slowly ran my hands up her back as her lips met mine. I wondered if I was allowed to touch her the way I thought other men did.

"Mmm, yes," she said, running her fingers through my hair. She seemed to like it long. I'd have to remember not to cut it too short. "Never do that."

"Then I won't."

I felt her sharp teeth press into my lips and tongue. I could taste blood in my mouth and she groaned, pressing closer to me, tasting it, too. She pulled away abruptly, gasping.

"Oh, God. Don't tempt me with blood." I smiled. "I really have to work." I pouted as she got off me, kissing my lips once and leaving, waving.


	20. Changing

My eyes were starting to ache when I heard Stephanie's door open. I hadn't had much luck finding a job in a garage. There were only three shops nearby and none of them were hiring. I was just beginning to give up when she got home.

I turned around in the desk chair to look at Stephanie come it. Her hair was messed up, but her clothes were as smooth as when she left. She threw a small purse onto her bed before walking over to me.

"Have you even eaten while I was gone?" she asked, sitting on my lap. "You've hardly moved."

"Yes, I ate," I said.

"Enough?"

"I think so. I'm still hungry, but it's normal hungry."

"Good," she said. She looked so tired. Twelve hours of working at a bar. Somehow, she still managed to stay beautiful. "Thank you for the compliment."

"I don't think I'll ever get over the whole mind-reading thing."

"I know. Many people don't. They're just not used to having someone invade their privacy. I usually try to ignore the thoughts."

"Ignore? How do you do that? Just tune it out?"

"Well, yeah. Except for you. You're very loud, but I don't think of it as annoying like Ed does. It's more so I can hear you on long distances. I figure I'll always be able to hear you."

"You think you'll always be near me? Close enough to hear me at all times?" I asked, shifter her around on my lap.

"Hope is more what it is. I figure that there's going to be some periods of time when we aren't as close as we are now. Something will separate us," she said.

"Separate? As in, the imprint?"

"Not necessarily. It's not the clearest. I don't know. I'm not sure. Urgh, this is frustrating."

"What?" I asked. She put her hand her to head and got off me. I watched her walk to the closet and pull a dress off the rack. "What are you worried about?"

"It's hard to explain. I'm not sure—this is really confusing."

"Try to imagine how I feel," I said, walking to her. She stopped to look at me for a second. "Okay. I know you understand what I'm going through, but I don't know what's going on."

"I get that. That's what's so confusing."

"Confusing? I don't see how that's confusing."

"I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do what I need to do. I don't really want to talk about it. Not today. I have to go talk to some people today and get back on track with what I'm supposed to be doing."

"What's that?"

"Making sure we remain a secret." She left the room and I followed her down the hall to the stairs.

"Are you the one in charge of keeping the vampires all hush-hush?"

"No. No one person is allowed to do that."

"Well, then, what do you do?"

Stephanie stopped at the end of the hallway and turned to look at me in the dark. The black dress she'd put on flowed around her feet as she assessed our situation.

"I'm the one who kills the humans who know about us. I am the one who is designated to kill Bella and the child she's now carrying."


	21. The Only Thing Worse Than Beating A D

"You can't kill her!"

"I wasn't planning on it. That's what I'm worrying about. Normally, I would have no problem going after her, but she's with child. Again, not a big issue. She's carrying someone who would be a lovely little science experiment."

"You plan on using that child as a _science experiment_?"

"No. It'd just be nice to have someone I can talk to about what it's like to have literally every cell in your body rejecting it's neighbors!"

"How can you think something like that? I'll always be here for you and you know it."

"But you'll never fully understand anything I might tell you," she said, starting to quiet down.

"And you think having someone like you is going to help? She'll be a newborn. She won't be able to talk to you about anything. And she'll only be part bloodsucker, not completely like you," I reminded her.

"I know that, Jake, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing."

She turned away from me and stepped down the stairs. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, leaning against the wall. Our first fight and it's only been a few days.

"Two, right?" a voice said. I glared back up the hallway. Rocco was standing at the end, both hands in his pockets. He looked absolutely smug about something. Instantly, I started thinking about how Stephanie felt when we were sitting on her bed.

Rocco growled at me and I stared, remaining calm. "I thought Stephanie got ride of you. I thought it was apparent that you aren't allowed here, nor wanted," I hissed.

"Well, there was never an official citation or conversation about it. Besides, only Stephanie can kick me out. It is her house, after all."

I glared at him. I didn't want him anywhere near her.

"Any why not? Afraid she'll leave you for me? I can't blame you, but you're really going to have to let that go. Gotta move on with your life," he said, smirking.

"And, pray tell, why would I choose your slimy guts over him?"

I turned to see Steph standing behind me on the landing, I hadn't even heard her. Neither had Rocco by the look on his face.

"You went from me to this ass? He thinks he owns the place simply because of you. That's not right."

"You did the same thing, remember? It doesn't matter what you think is right. It's my decision. I want you out now. Please don't make me say it again. As always, third time's the charm."

"I can't believe y—"

"Leave," she whispered, taking a small step toward him. Rocco walked past me to the doorway I assumed led to his 'old' room.

"Just be glad your girlfriend was here today, wolf boy," he growled. I bared my teeth and barely kept myself from tearing him to pieces. Stephanie glanced at me for a second before conducting a full search for his belongings.

In seconds, she had everything packed and at the bottom of the stairs, waiting to be taken out the door. I wondered if this meant that she had forgiven me for our slight disagreement earlier.

"Goodbye, Rocco," she said, sourly.

"Until next time, dog," he muttered.


End file.
